Apple today released the latest beta for its upcoming iOS 6 mobile operating system. Although iOS 6 doesn’t make any huge leaps forward visually or productivity wise, the operating system has caught quite a bit of attention for what it lacks.

IOS 6 marks the first release of the operating system that doesn’t come preloaded with Google Maps. Instead, Apple kicked Google to the curb and included its own mapping service (which is actually not as functionally complete as Google Maps on many fronts).

Next, Apple passive aggressively removed the name “Google” from the search field in Safari, which signified that Google was powering search results (iOS also includes search options for Bing and Yahoo).

Now, Apple has taken the next step in ridding itself of Google’s “hooks” into iOS. In iOS 6 Beta 4, Apple has removed the YouTube app from the Springboard. The YouTube app has been featured on iOS ever since the iPhone’s introduction in 2007.

According to The Verge, this is what Apple has to say on the matter:

Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.

At least iOS users can rest assured that YouTube will continue to function normally through Safari. In addition, Google is working on a standalone Maps app that will be available in the App Store and should reintroduce the features that Apple stripped from its own mapping app with iOS 6.

Problem is cults tend to die off when their leader does. It has been a year, and despite strong sales, Apple is increasingly being looked at in a negative light, and under more fine of a microscope. Competition is gaining ground and moving faster that Apple can. Without Jobs and his OCD control over all aspects of the products, there will be more and more poor decisions made as the executive ranks scramble to try to do "what Steve would do", and to fulfill his legacy. Problem is, there is no next Steve Jobs. Not for Apple. The next Steve Jobs will be with some other company, maybe not even in the tech field.